Biting winds and below-freezing temperatures have returned with unusual vengeance this January.
In an effort to fight this Arctic airflow, Northwestern provides students with an alternative to bundling up and braving the cold — the Frostbite Express.
The Frostbite Express made this year’s inaugural run last week and began shuttling people around again Tuesday morning.
“Since Northwestern has a long and narrow campus, when it’s really really cold, we provide this service up and down Sheridan so students who live on one end and have classes on the other can just hop on,” said Mary Desler, associate vice president for student affairs.
Tim Seeley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said the normal high for Chicago for Tuesday’s date is 29 degrees. According to the National Weather Service Web site, however, temperatures Tuesday only reached the high teens.
Estimates for Friday suggest a high of 20 degrees and a low of 15 degrees.
“The overall flow in the atmosphere for the last couple weeks has been from the north and northwest, so it’s been bringing cold air down out of Canada and the Arctic,” Seeley said.
Desler said the shuttle doesn’t run continuously because of its cost. The Office of Student Affairs and NU Parking and Transportation Services collaborate to provide the shuttle and decide which days it’s necessary.
Temperature and wind chill are the main factors in that decision, Desler said.
“In general, when the wind chill means it’s going to be below zero or close, that’s when we get it up and running,” she said.
On the days it’s in service, the Frostbite Express runs 24 hours a day and follows the same path as the White Route shuttle, leaving from each stop every 20 minutes.
Students can visit www.gensvcs.northwestern.edu/Parking/frost.htm to find out if the Frostbite Express is in service.
Krista Lorence, a McCormick sophomore, said the shuttle would be useful in getting to faraway classes.
“I would use it because I live on South Campus and all my classes are in Tech,” she said.
Lorence, who is from Boring, Ore., said Evanston’s winter temperatures are about 40 degrees lower than she’s used to. But according to Seeley, temperatures have been below normal even for this area.
“Normal is kind of a misnomer, though, especially for this climate, where temperatures are highly variable,” he said.
Seeley said although the weather’s been cold this year, the Chicago area hasn’t seen any sub-zero temperatures or any of the strong winds that can drive wind chills into “dangerous territory.”
“We really haven’t had any extreme, bitter cold,” he said.
Beginning this weekend and into next week, Seeley said, the area will see some warmer weather — if it’s possible to call highs in the upper 30s warm.
Until then, his advice to cold college students is to wear a hat to prevent losing body heat through the head.
“Sometimes vanity gets in the way,” Seeley said, “but then you reach a point where it’s just too cold and then people don’t care what they look like anymore.”
Desler has her own advice for beating the cold: the Frostbite Express.
“We keep track of ridership, so the less you use it, the less likely we’re going to keep it,” she said.